Importance of workflow management in CRM applications

How do you achieve consistent and seamless workflow within your business? Many business executives struggle in their day-to-day business operations and it’s not that they lack CRM (Customer Relationship Management) applications, far from that. What do they fail to take into account, however, is how their existing CRM applications will affect their business workflow. In other words, how can a CRM software help your business run as smooth as possible? Usually, CEOs tend to go for CRM applications that have flashy features, are quite well-known and cost less than other similar applications. Now, don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with that approach. However, before making the final decision, you need to ponder these questions: How is the CRM application going to impact my sales strategies, my sales and marketing strategies? Will my projects and daily operations run faster and more efficiently than they do know? Will the customer support gain more leverage through the application of CRM software? Short answer, CRM applications have already helped many small and large businesses automating processes, reducing operational costs and delivering great results as a consequence. Here is why workflow management is vital in CRM applications and how important are they for startups and well-established companies:

No matter how successful your company might be, you always need new customers. And for that matter, who doesn’t? Point is, how do you the build a system that works in a seamless way? For one thing, you can set up a trigger that notifies your marketing manager every time new leads enter the system. CRM applications give you the opportunity to automatically receive new leads through web forms, word-of-mouth, e-mail marketing campaigns, etc. Once you have the leads, the leads are automatically assigned to the sales team. The team is going to try and seal the deal through CRM features such as e-mail marketing, task, events or even constant reminders. Granted, turning a lead into a customer is no walk in the park, but with the right tool offered by CRM applications that have seamless workflow management, it won’t be a Sisyphean undertaking anymore.

Having workflow management in your CRM applications help augment accounting automation within your company. Once you have turned certain leads into customers, you need to retain them. But how do you turn them into trusted and loyal customers? Through time-based triggers, you can automatically alert your sales or marketing managers that a contract is due to expire. You can automatically send e-mails to your customers, notifying them about the expiration date. This way, you avoid becoming intrusive and at the same time you provide them with options for renewal.

Once your leads are converted into customers, you need to keep them satisfied. With that being said, you need to respond to every issue in no time. With so many outgoing and incoming e-mails, it’s impossible to keep track and manage all of them. CRM application that have already integrated workflow management into their platforms will provide you with trouble tickets or help tickets, and they are indispensable when it comes to giving quick and ad-hoc feedback to your customers.

Suppose, for instance that a new lead visits your website. Now, do you login into your CRM every time a new lead visit your website and you proceed to send an e-mail like the old times? It’s an utter waste of time. Through workflow management integrated into CRM applications, you can automatically send e-mails to leads, team members, etc. This way you save time, cut redundancies, achieving a state of flow within your business or organization along the way.

In an ever-competing market, you need to always to be at the top of the game. Back in 1895, Oscar Wilde published his book “The Importance of Being Earnest”. Fast forward 120 years. It’s high time someone started writing a book on “The Importance of workflow management in CRM applications”!